Frugal & Natural Pest Control: Fruit Flies & Ants Be Gone!

This post was originally published July 24, 2009. We have recently been attacked again with large ants around our house, so I knew it was time to bring out our successful ant trap and share with you all our success again!

We have been attacked by an abundance of fruit flies lately in my kitchen. AHH! Don’t you love those little flying insects that seem to find every bit of food in your kitchen and around your trash can? Here is our simple, frugal, and effective solution!

Fruit Fly Trap

1 quart jar
1 piece of paper, rolled up into a funnel
tape
apple cider vinegar
small slice of banana

Fill a quart jar with a 1/2 inch of apple cider vinegar and a small piece of banana. Roll up your paper into a funnel shape (larger at the top) and tape it in place. Place the funnel into your jar and make sure all the edges are secured shut with tape. You may have to adjust the size of your funnel to make sure it fits nicely into your jar. Place the jar where the fruit flies are flying around and let it go to work. You will be amazed at how well this trap works. The fruit flies will smell the fruit and climb inside, but for some odd reason they don’t fly back up the funnel to get out. When you have caught a good supply, place the entire jar in the freezer. After a short time that flies with die and you can remove the jar from the freezer and use it again without even removing the old contents. Use repeatedly until your fruit flies are eliminated.

As you can see in my picture, this easy trap is amazingly effective!

Ant Trap

We are often plagued with ants in the summer time as well around here. We have various sorts of carpenter and sugar ants. This little concoction does the trick! Last year we had huge carpenter ants all around our kitchen. Many were coming out of our electrical saukets in our kitchen. We were blown away by how quickly they were eradicated with this recipe.

1 tsp. borax (borax is an natural laundry boosting powder available in the laundry section of the store, normally on the top shelf)
2 cups hot water
6 Tbsp sugar
folded paper towel
small shallow cup (like a creme burlee dish)

Disolve borax in hot water. Stir in sugar. Dip the folded paper towel, using tongs, in the solution till completely saturated with solution. Cram the paper towel in the dish. Place in location where you have seen the ants. This solution will be eaten by the ants and taken back to the nest to share with the other ants and thus eradicate the entire nest. Keep away from children by placing on a countertop or cupboard, if possible.

About Lindsay

Lindsay Edmonds is first a lover of Jesus, wife, mother of three, homemaker, and writer. She is the editor of Passionate Homemaking since its beginning five years ago. She loves inspiring women around the world toward simple, natural, and intentional living for the glory of God.

I tried this at my house in Costa Rica, where we’re all plagued by ants year-round. We had both large ants and tiny sugar ants and this recipe killed both types. Thanks so much for a GREAT solution to the ant problem that is not expensive or laced with very harsh chemicals. I love it and recommend it to others.

I love your ideas, especially the fruit fly one. We get them horribly while canning in the summer.

Another thing that works fantastic for ants is cornmeal. We get them in our basement each summer. It is annoying. We take cornmeal and put it along the path the ants eat. They take it back to the nest and eat it and die.

Thanks for sharing the idea! I just “stumbled upon” your site. I new there was a trick to catch those fruit flies. They are driving me nuts!! Everytime I get to the kitchen sink I spray it with bug spray, and sometimes I’ll catch a couple and sometimes I won’t. Thanks again! Oh and oh so cute blog!!

The ant trap worked great. Less than 12 hours and no ant sightings today.

For fruit flies, I tried your jar method last year w/ limited success. For a similar (and smack your head, why didn’t i think of that) approach, I did this with great success:

Put canteloupe in a plastic container that has a lid (like gladware).
Leave the lid off
Put it on the counter
Wait until all the fruit flies are happily feasting
Put on the lid
Take the fruit flies outside.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for the ant trap recipe!!! We have been fighting ants for 5 years in our kitchen. I hate putting chemically things on our counters (out of the way of dog and child) and nothing “homemade” (peppermint, vingegar, etc) worked until this! I placed several dishes out for most of the day Sunday and I have never SEEN so many ants in my house before happily noshing on their “treat”. That night I cleaned everything up, wiped the counters down really well and we are going on 3 days without a sighting so far!

Just when I was getting crabby about all the fruit flies flying around in my kitchen, I remembered seeing your post in my blog list! I have never had a problem with fruit flies before. Ugh. Thanks again. I would love to see you post about something natural that *works* for roaches. We live in an old house and pests can just get in. There is no way around it. I hate, hate roaches and would love to see some suggestions w/o using Raid! Thanks!

Quick question about the ant solution–about how long does it take for the ants to be gone? Is this something I should leave out for several days and continue to wipe down the counters to rid the ants that are there or should I just let them do their thing around/in the solution and wait until they eventually stop coming?

I was just thinking about this tip that I originally read when you posted it last year. We have some pesky regular flies that have gotten into the house and won’t seem to die. I wonder if this trap would work for them too. I was thinking I’d have to peruse your blog to remember how to make it, but how wonderfully convenient that you posted about it again – thanks!

Just wanted to share some info about the carpenter ants…if you have them, you may want to do a thorough inspection of your house to make sure you don’t have any rotting wood anywhere…since that’s what draws them. We had carpenter ants here for the first 2-3 years after moving in until a friend told us that. So we searched and found a pile of (scrap) wood in the rafters of our basement. After we got rid of it, we didn’t see another ant again…it’s been 3 years. Just a thought.
I also have an issue with fruit flys around the bucket to go out to the compost container…one day of being lazy and leaving it too long, and you have those stupid things flying around forever it seems! I’ll try this tip soon.

I am a finalist in a local photography contest and they just opened up the “peoples choice” category today – which means people can vote for their favorite image.
The image with the most votes wins $200!!

I was wondering if you would be so kind as to consider posting an appeal to your readers to real quickly vote on my picture?
All of the details are HERE but you are more than welcome to take the text and image and just post it on your blog without linking to mine if that is easier.

Thanks for considering it!!
It would mean so much to me to win the $200 cash prize!!
-Jessica

I had a tough time getting rid of fruit flies last season until I covered my fruit. I used a light weight tea towel and completely covered the bowl of fruit. The material is thin enough to let air pass through but not bugs. Also, sometimes fruit flies can breed in the sink drains, even if you don’t have a garbage disposal. So if you’re having a tough time getting rid of them, try cleaning your drains.

This spring our kitchen pests are of the furry, four-footed variety. So my weekend has been filled with putting all my pantry goods into mouse-proof containers.

I really need this ant trap- thanks for the tip!
And to Amy that has the problem with the ant hills outside. Try diatematious earth (don’t know if I just spelled that correctly or not!) You can “pour” it right down the ant hill and that should do the trick. I got ours from our food co-op but I think you can get it at most feed stores or nurseries.

You gals with fruit fly issues should be aware that they are also called vinegar flies and if you clean with vinegar, that will attract them. Also, getting rid of whatever fruit they came into your home on helps to take care of the problem.

Do you know if the borax solution might work on ant hills too? We have a yard full of anthills and I am reluctant to use sevin dust all over our yard with little kids running around. If you are anyone else knows, I’d love to hear. Thank you!

I actually posted about this fruitfly trap last summer. I love it! It does work really well. I haven;t started a new one this year because it has not been an issue yet, but I noticed a few flies around by bowl that needs to go out to the compost.

I will have to try this one for ants. This year we have had issues with ants. I have been able to keep them at a minimum by making sure that I clean after each meal and spraying with vinegar every couple of days but there are always a few explorers around. Since I have no idea where they are coming from it might be nice to get rid of the colony. I also have a colony of ants that lives in my garden. I’m trying to think of a safe way to get rid of or move them.

Thank you for posting this! I am having trouble with ants right now!!! I didn’t want anything chemical to get rid of them. I was going to try peppermint essential oil on the counter as I recently read that may work. So, hopefully one of these two things will work! Thanks again.

Thanks for great ideas. We don’t have fruit flies but we do have ants. They haven’t invaded yet this year but I’m just waiting since they’re already all over the side walk. It’s weird, every day there’s a bunch of dead ants on the sidewalk.

Perfect timing!!! We just found a mess of ants in the basement bathroom!!!
Did you ever come up with a laundry without using borax?? You mentioned you were going to try a few, but I never heard if you found one.

for fruit flies I simply pour some apple cider vinegar in a small dish and then put in a few drops of dish soap. When they get close they fall in but the dish soap makes their wings not work and the drown. I’ve tried that method you use, but like the simplicity of this one a bit better. Just thought I’d share with you and your readers.